Pictures of Mpumudde

The Jungle of Mubira

These pictures were all taken inside of the jungle. The area I am working in looks similar to this in some areas. My area is huge! it would take us about 4 hours to walk through it. we use taxi's a lot to go to further areas for 500 shillings. which is about 15 cents back home.

The place I email is in town. it is called jinja town and is a 30 minute bus ride and a 20 minute walk from our home. it is wierd to find some nicer end stores here, but they are here, just deep into the town. it takes 5 minutes to load one picture so bare with me on the lack of pictures sent. haha us missionaries are on tight schedules.

Hello Everyone!

So we had a training as a zone, and I gave a training in front of President jackson and the AP's and the missionaries in my zone. they said prepare for 4 minutes, but as I was coming up they said to take 15 minutes. it actually turned out really good i think. but that is not what i want to talk about... we talked about finding the ELECT. In moses chapter 7 in talks about a group of people in the pre earth life that already where chosen to be strong members of the church. some were born into it and others knew that they would be taught at sometime in their life. so when these ELECT one came to earth they forgot about the pre earth life... as missionaries it is our job to find these ELECT ones. you will know when you find an ELECT person, when they are accepting and want to be baptized... If missionaries would live by this principle it would make missionary work so easy! they are the ones prepared and all they need is to here the doctrine of christ and they will get a glimpse of the pre earth gathering of the ELECT ones. Dont be afraid to drop investigators. we shouldnt be wasting valuable time will investigators who we know aren't going to join, or show no commitments. if we waste time with them, we waste our time when we should be finding the ELECT ones. and if we are always searching for the ELECT then missionary work will be easy. they should be begging you to be baptized.

After Elder Lloyd and I realized this we ended up dropping a lot of people who had been taught for months and showed no commitement. It is a hard thing to do... we have become close with a lot of them.. but we gave them a blessing and told them we would come back to visit every now and then and if they start coming to church or want to be baptized then we will come back. it was very hard to do... but right after we did that we found a family of 8 that we would not have found because we usually meet with some other guy at the same time every day... this family, after the first lesson, wants to be baptized... they are begging us to baptize them... they older ones want to serve a mission already... haha they are saying this is just the first lesson!!! I know that we should only be teaching the ELECT! and if we do, then missionary work will become a lot easier!

Also I was studying D&C chapter 158. It talks about where Jesus was for 3 days after he was crusified, and before he was ressurected. He went to the spirit world to teach!!! Joseph smith was reading in peter and received a revelation about this. Joseph saw so many prophets and good people from the bible and the book of mormon!!! he saw adam, eve, moses, able, seth, nephi, lehi, and so many more. We continue to learn and progress in the spirit world! And i believe that we continue to wash away our sins! read the last 2 verses. I know that Jesus went to the spirtit world for 3 days before he was ressurected to teach the ELECT ones and to start missionary work in the next life! I have been able to find out key information about my patriarchial blessing as well! things that i have been writing in my journal and will share later.

Elder Mofokend got hit by a botabota this week! haha he is fine, but it was super hilarious. it hit his arm going like 30MPH and crashed and slid off the road with a passenger. the man didn't say a word and just got up and left... some people here are really unkind and inconciderate.

I am really starting to pick up on the language and can say all the simple things in Lusoga. like hello, how are you, what is your name, thank you, well done, and things like that. it's really awesome and i dont feel like a Mazungu anymore.

We got locked out of our house on saturday... we were locked out until 1130! no one could come for a long time... so we broke open the screen window through the metal bars and saw the keys on the couch. I was able to lift up and couch and tip it upside down and retrieve the keys! haha

We had 3 baptisms this week! Mary, Mary, and Shira! they are 15 13 and 10. super cute and nice enyabo's! Mary and shira are cousins and their dad/uncle baptized them. the other mary was going to be baptized by her dad, but he had trouble with his landlord so Elder Lloyd baptized her!

Next sunday we have 3 more scheduled and it should be awesome! we are finding the ELECT ones with the help of the holy spirit! It is so awesome to be a literal instrument in the lords hands.

I saw monkeys!!! today the zone went to a jungle/forest in Mabira! it was like the movies! super thick with ants and spiders and monkeys everywhere! it was way legit!

I have some sort of mold on my pinky toe.. I dont know what it is but hopefully it goes away!

Love you all very much!

Elder Halladay

(*Kole includes personal messages to everyone in our family each week, but we have decided to keep those personal messages private. Thank you! -Alex)